Amalgamator



(No Model.)

P. B. WILSON.

AMALGAMATOR.

No. 250,318. Patented Nov. 29,1881.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PIERCE B. WILSON, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

AMALGAMATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 250,318, dated.November 29, 1881. Application filed July 11 1881. (No model.) Patented in England September 6, 1880.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PIERCE B. WILSON, of the city of Baltimore and the State of Maryland, have invented certain Improvements in Amalgamators, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to certain improvements in an amalgamator for which Letters Patent of the United States No. 231,878 were granted to me on the 31st day of August, 1880. The amalgamator described in the said Letters Patent consists of a centrifugal machine having therevoluble basketthereofsurrounded by an amalgamated or mercury-coated plate. The materials from which the gold is to be separated are introduced to the revoluble basket through a pipe or trough, and projected from the said basket and against the mercury-coated plate by centrifugal force. In the said Letters Patent the revoluble basket is cylindrical in form; consequently the materials introduced to the basket fall to the bottom thereof before any centrifugal action takes place. In View of this the said materials are projected from the lower partonly of the hasket, the upper part ofthe same being practically inoperative. In the present invention 1 obviate this difficulty and increase the area of mercury-coated plate affected by the distribution of gold by using a conical basket, either by itself or in connection with the cylindrical basket before alluded to, as will be hereinafter fully described.

In the further description of my said invention which follows, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof, and in which Figure I is a sectional elevation of my improved amalgamator, together with some of its attachments. Fig. II is a sectional plan of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate similar parts in both the views.

A is the casing of the machine. B is the revoluble cylindrical basket, which is driven in the usual way.

Gisa mercury-coated plate,preferably made in sections, placed in the casin g A and around the basket B. The lower end of the casingA terminates in a pipe, D, through which amalgam, water, and ore, after the separating process, are delivered to a vessel, E, provided with suitable stirring devices.

F is the conical basket, and, as before stated, it can be used either in connection with the basket B, as shown in the drawings, or by itself, in which latter case it would be properly secured to the central shaft. The materials from which the gold is to be separated are introduced to the conical basket, and near the upper edge of the inclined surface of the same, through a pipe or trough, G, and the centrifugal action is at once commenced, instead of being deferred, as in the case of the patented invention, until the materials reach the bottom of the basket.

From the foregoing description it will be understood that the gold is distributed over the amalgamated plate to a height corresponding, practically, to the depth of the conical basket. I do not limit myself to a strictly conical basket, as a basket of any form that opposes an inclined surface to the materials introduced thereto and is closed at its lower end will produce to some extent the result which I have described.

I claim as my invention- 1. In a centrifugal amalgamator, the combination of a conical revoluble basket closed at its lower end and a surrounding amalgamated or mercury-coated plate, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. In a centrifugal amalgamator, the combination of a conical revoluble basket, a supply pipe or trough terminating at a point over the said basket, adapted to convey water, ore, &c., to the inclined inner surface of the same, and an amalgamated or mercury-coated plate surrounding the said basket, substantially as specified.

PIEROE B. WILSON.

Witnesses:

WM. T. HOWARD, M10. '1. MAEDoX. 

